I had an OB with my first and a midwife with my second, and I felt much more comfortable with the midwife, despite this pregnancy having been so much more complicated than my first. With teh OB, I was never asked if I wanted to have tests done, with the notable exception of the HIV test, I was handed a requisition and expected to do it. With the midwife, we talked about available testing, what each test was for, what any risks were, and then the decision if I wanted it was left up to me, and I never felt judged regardless of my decision. They suggested natural things to help alleviate any problems I was having before jumping to the perscription pad, they recommended a hospital birth since I was a VBAC mama, but would have done a home birth if I'd wanted it. They were very down to earth, very happy to let me dictate what was done, and to be as hands on or hands off as I wanted them to be.

I don't recommend going without any prenatal care. I do recommend having someone you can trust in charge of it. Things can crop up and did with my pregnancy, which actually resulted in my being transferred to an OB for the birth, and those things are not always obvious until they're very advanced. I think i fyou look around you can find a midwife who can act as your safety, and not try to orchestrate your birth.

I am a healthy 35 yo women trying to get pregnant with my second child. With my first pregnancy during the U/S they found a "defect"with my pregnancy . Then proceeded to give me a list of all the things my baby could have wrong. They offered every genetic/ prenatal test possible and ordered me to have weekly fetal heart monitoring and weekly U/S. I was a wreck my whole pregnancy. Other than being born a few weeks early he had none of the defects they said he could have.

So sorry you experienced that mama! I decided against genetic testing for those reasons, and my son was born perfectly healthy. I am pregnant with my second child now, and I will not have it done. If my child does end up having a problem, I will deal with it.

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Originally Posted by achickadeeandme

Here we are 8 years later and I am a completely different person. I eat naturally/ organically ( we have an organic farm) my family sees a ND and we treat things naturally. I am very intune with my body and feel completely at peace with the pregnancy process.. We are planning a homebirth. Is it wrong to avoid prenatal care? I don't want tests and ultrasounds this time around. I just want to enjoy bring pregnant.

I would suggest a midwife. They are wonderful, trained professionals who see pregnancy and birth as a natural condition, not a disease. The very word stands for "pro woman" if I remember correctly. They will only monitor the basics, but you are in control of how much you want done.

Just to share a story: my SIL had a perfectly normal pregnancy. One day toward the end of her eighth month, she fell "weird". Fortunately, she had a checkup appointment with her doctor later that very day. He quickly determined that the baby's heart rate was dangerously low and decided to prep her for an emergency c-section. The baby was born with no heart beat and he wasn't breathing (the cord was tightly wrapped around his neck). The doctors revived him and he is now a healthy 8-month-old. Had she waited or had she not received prenatal care, my nephew would not have survived.

Even for my family, who is considered "hippy and crunchy" by modern standards, we would never consider skipping prenatal care.

Thanks for all the replies . We do plan on using a midwife, no UA birth for me. I just plan on forgoing most if not all testing, even things offered through the MW unless there seems to be a need. I read in a book recently that modern day medicine treats pregnancy as an "Illness/condition" that needs to be treated. It's a natural thing that our bodies are already programmed to do...
Mamas just need to be left alone without so many intetventions( I didn't say ALL interventions, just most of them :0) )

I didn't want prenatal care either!! For two of my pregnancies, I had my first appt at 20 weeks and they freaked out about that making me regret ever going in at all. I only went in to get my insurance in order and paperwork for the birth going. I was worried they wouldn't cover us if we didn't get prenatal care. For my last pregnancy, they told me at EVERY appt I should have my tubes tied and that I was nuts for having a baby at 37. Yeah, they stunk . My baby boy came out perfectly healthy at 11 pounds 1 ounce and the doctor was amazed at how healthy I was too. I got the baby checked out postpartum but I never returned. All is well here. Read Ina May books and know all your warning signs like bleeding, etc. an ultrasound may be good just to rule out placenta previa or to check placenta attachment/placement since that is life threatening. Good luck!

__________________Jesus loving mama of girls 7,5,3 boy 1 with a girl due April 5th!

No one can "order" you to do anything - I'm sure they were just being cautious with your baby, most women would rather be safe than sorry and I personally would LOVE if I could go to my OB every week and listen to the baby's heartbeat to reassure me that everything is going great!

I am sure this was just their recommendation, and they probably had no idea that you had objections about going in once a week. You can certainly decline such things in the future, but they will likely have to ensure that you understand the complications/risks that could arise from such a thing. Most of the time, they can only give you odds and statistics of what could be going on, so it's not abnormal for a baby to be born healthy even though there were possible complications. For every one that is born healthy and beats the odds, there is a boatload that is born with the problems they warned about, so they have to treat each one as a possible complication.

I would contact a midwife. I would explain what I wanted -minimal care- and go with that.

You don't need the testing and poking and prodding and ultrasounds. You can even skip the glucose with probably no problems. I would definitely get the GBS testing just because it is so very risky if you deliver while GBS+ and aren't prepared.

I would want some level of care. Even if it's very minimal. But beyond that, you can do what you like.

__________________
SAHM to Magnolia May (09/10), Luke Russett (04/13) and expecting 11/16. Wife and best friend to my airman.

Thanks for all the replies . We do plan on using a midwife, no UA birth for me. I just plan on forgoing most if not all testing, even things offered through the MW unless there seems to be a need. I read in a book recently that modern day medicine treats pregnancy as an "Illness/condition" that needs to be treated. It's a natural thing that our bodies are already programmed to do...
Mamas just need to be left alone without so many intetventions( I didn't say ALL interventions, just most of them :0) )

I agree and I don't agree that our bodies are designed for childbirth.

Yes, of course they are. But also, women and babies used to die in childbirth quite commonly. Midwives have been around for so long to reduce these things because women have always known childbirth is inherently dangerous.

We are born to do this, but natural selection doesn't choose all women to have uncomplicated childbirths.

I was in labor for 23 hours before they decided that the fetal distress was getting too distressing and I had an emergency csection for my cord wrapped baby. There was no way to anticipate that.

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SAHM to Magnolia May (09/10), Luke Russett (04/13) and expecting 11/16. Wife and best friend to my airman.

What I said was that when they say you have an 80 percent chance of the baby having the problem they determined baby was at high risk of having, having baby end up being totally normal is the exception.